Science Education & Policy

LONDON, September 8 /PRNewswire/ --
Pharmacists could help reduce GP workloads by 20 per cent, saving the NHS millions of pounds every year, according to Steve Churton, President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB).
Addressing delegates at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester today, RPSGB President Steve Churton said:
"Every year patients with minor ailments generate over 50 million GP consultations: that's almost 20 per cent of doctors' workloads, costing the NHS more than GBP1.5 billion. There is absolutely no reason why such consultations…

SAO PAULO, Brazil, September 5 /PRNewswire/ --
- Event will be held September 17-20 at the Transamerica Expo Center
- Those interested in the visits can now register for the Congress and reserve a space
The World Federation of Investors Corporation Congress (WFIC), which will take place September 17-20 at the Transamerica Expo Center in Sao Paulo, will be offering participants the opportunity to tour the installations of two of the country's largest companies: Petrobras and Vale.
Congress attendees can either visit the Petrobras Henrique Lage Refinery, one of the company's most important…

LONDON, September 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons yesterday (4 September 2008) directed that veterinary surgeon William Angus Baird be restored to the RCVS Register after his removal in July 2007 for serious professional misconduct.
Mr Baird, who at the time of the original one-day hearing owned the Happy Pet Veterinary Clinic in Yeovil, but is now based in New Zealand, was convicted of a Charge relating to his refusal to attend a 14-year-old German Shepherd-cross bitch, 'Cassie', at the home of owners Mr and Mrs McConnell, when he…

LONDON, September 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Most government and learning disability organisations are still failing to give the UK's 1.5 million people with learning disabilities (LD) a voice and a say in how their services are 'personalised'.
UK Government's policy is now that people with LD should receive personalised social care. Multimedia provides a proven tool to help people with LD achieve this. But the technology seems too challenging for the majority of social carers, says Andy Minnion, director of the Rix Centre.
"Through our R&D at the Rix Centre with local authorities and groups…

Unlike the social sciences, which are overwhelmingly women, and life sciences, which are about 50-50, the hard sciences have a true gender disparity and the search is always on for reasons why.
Most parents and many teachers believe that if middle-school and high-school girls show no interest in science or math, there's little anyone can do about it but new research indicates that self-confidence instilled by parents and teachers is more important for young girls than their initial interest.
While interest is certainly a factor in getting older girls to study and pursue a career in these…

You may have seen projections by some scientists of global seas rising by 20 feet or more by the end of this century as a result of warming, and you may have seen others projecting less than two feet in a worst case scenario. There are a lot of projections but a new University of Colorado at Boulder study concludes that global sea rise of more than 6 feet is not only a top end of the projection, it is a near physical impossibility.
Tad Pfeffer, a fellow of CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and his colleagues made calculations using conservative, medium and extreme…

What is a gene?
You'll be forgiven if you have a few definitions. Even scientists define ‘a gene’ in different ways, so it may come as little surprise that the media also have various ways of 'framing' the concept of a gene.
But how journalists 'frame' what you might think are common terms has a very real impact on what readers think, and since more and more readers are becoming accustomed to making voting decisions based on science policy ones, how terms are used, and their context, has become ever more important.
Ferocious debates on genetically modified crops or stem cell research…

DALLAS, September 4 /PRNewswire/ --
- Registration Open for Marathoners to Benefit Leading Breast Cancer Organization
As part of its vision to realize a world without breast cancer, Susan G. Komen for the Cure(R) is encouraging athletes to participate in Team Marathon, a new initiative that aligns Komen for the Cure with committed, passionate marathon and half marathon runners in an effort to raise money for breast cancer research and community health programs.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070122/NYM084LOGO)
Participants can choose to run in a race where Komen is an official…

PARIS, September 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has been awarded the WiMAX Forum Certified(TM) seal of approval for its WiMAX 802.16e Compact Base Station at 2.5GHz. This achievement further confirms Alcatel-Lucent's leadership in WiMAX and its commitment to accelerate the development of a global and open WiMAX(TM) eco-system.
Alcatel-Lucent's infrastructure portfolio is made up of products that strictly comply with the 802.16e-2005 standard (also called Rev-e), which supports fixed, nomadic and mobile services. The company's "Open CPE…

LONDON, September 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Many youngsters are saving towards higher education from the age of 11 because they have seen older family members flounder under the burden of university debts, according to research from leading Child Trust Fund provider, The Children's Mutual (http://www.thechildrensmutual.co.uk).
And with news that 42 per cent of this year's undergraduates plan to work part-time in a bid to afford higher education and 78 per cent of parents saying they think that the credit crunch will make it harder for them to fund their children through university, The Children's…